Credit Management June 2018

SOAPBOX CHALLENGE
THE CURATE’S EGG
The case for more national pride and
optimism in a country all-too-often prone
to self-deprecation.
AUTHOR – Glen Bullivant FCICM
I
read recently that all 750 passenger
information screens at an
international airport are in need of
replacement. They were installed in
2012, underwent a period of testing
and have remained switched on to
this day. Not that anyone has seen them, and
even if they had done, they would be none the
wiser, because they have had no passenger
information to display. The terminal building,
budgeted to cost about €2 billion should
have opened in 2011, but a few gremlins
caused a delay. I use the words ‘gremlins’
and ‘delay’ with some trepidation, because
much depends on what you consider to be
a gremlin and indeed how you accurately
define a delay. The official opening in
October 2011 was postponed because of
rather serious safety issues – the fire alarms
and the smoke suppression systems did
not work properly, automatic doors were
incorrectly fitted and it appeared that there
was a considerable amount of faulty wiring.
Oh, and the escalators did not go all the way,
as it were. Fairly big gremlins then. They are
now talking about opening in 2020, perhaps,
and costs have soared to more like €6 billion.
The passenger display screens are not really a
priority right now, I would say.
Now before we get ourselves into a mood
of doom and gloom and ‘here we go again’
regarding major infrastructure projects, I am
not talking about London Heathrow, London
Gatwick or indeed any other airport in our
green and pleasant land. The monumental
calamity is in fact Berlin Brandenburg – yes,
Berlin, which is in Germany as if you did not
know. In many ways, this fact alone makes
the whole sorry saga all that more unreal in
our eyes, because we expect better of them
and less of ourselves. If Crossrail was running
eight years late and three times over budget,
we would no doubt all be shaking our heads,
not in disbelief, more in expectation. Bad
weather causes our trains to stop and planes
to be grounded. But not Germany, surely? I
was in Kassel in Hess last October, and gales
that weekend caused every IC train to be
cancelled and a runway at Frankfurt Airport
to be closed, and the Beast from the East in
March caused as much chaos on mainland
Europe as it did here.
We are good at many things in the UK,
but top of our list of accomplishments is
the ability to talk ourselves down and look
enviously at everybody else. Low growth, poor
productivity, skill shortages, we can make the
list as long as we like. Add to that, we have
been inundated of late with the prospects
of the dire consequences of Brexit. It is not
my intention here to debate Brexit pros and
cons, nor to pass judgement on the wisdom or
otherwise of being in the EU or out of it. Far
from it – all I am trying to say is that whatever
problems we might have, others have them
as well and we forget that in truth there are
many things we are very good at, not least of
which, by the way, is the credit management
profession. I am often asked if I am a glass half
full or a glass half empty person – optimist
or pessimist, I suppose – and my response
is always the same. Half full or half empty
is immaterial because the glass is always
refillable. Anything in life is like the curate’s
egg, part good, part not so good but if we take
a positive view of our capabilities and what
we can achieve, it soon becomes clear that
we are very often much better than we think
we are. The CICMQ Accreditation focuses on
the good, leads to the elimination of the not
so good and raises the credit function to the
level it deserves.
It is not rocket science, nor is it beyond us.
Just think what our Victorian engineers and
builders achieved – they wanted to do it, and
they did it. So can we. Crossrail will happen,
more or less on time and more or less on
budget and so will countless other projects up
and down the land. Berlin Brandenburg will
open and will be a success, but the next time
someone tells you that ‘they’ can, shaking
heads in a sanguine manner, just remind
them that we can too, and we do.
Glen Bullivant FCICM has an interesting
selection of bow ties.
SOAPBOX
challenge
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / June 2018 / PAGE 53